Baking Techniques Day 1 - Lean Dough

A Hard Day's Work

Finally, after 3 weeks of intense studying, I'm in my chef coat and all ready to touch flour, sugar, butter, eggs and the all important chocolate!

This is the first of the subsequent weeks in the kitchen and here are some sneak peeks of the kitchen and equipment that I've been using today.


Section 50's side of the baking and pastry kitchen (I'm in Section 50)


My daily dining hall with the hot side section in the background (I promise better pictures next time)

Today, I made 2 types of lean dough:

a. White Wheat Lean Dough made of only water, bread flour, yeast and salt.
b. Lean Dough with Pate Fermentee

The White Wheat Lean Dough is the basic bread dough for the Parisian Baguettes, Dinner Rolls, and Pizza Dough etc. It is simple in taste and texture and usually served to compliment the main course.

For the White Wheat Lean Dough, we made 3 types of bread:


1. Fougasse, brushed with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with coarse sea salt.


2. Baguette, 4 scores on the surface. I made my own Baguette!!!!! Mine were long and skinny and reminded me of Olive (Popeye's wife)

3. Batard, a shorter and fatter version of the Baguette

Preparing to load the Batardes. Notice the Fougasse at the bottom deck


For the Lean Dough with Pate Fermetee, we made:

4. Boules (it means "balls" in French)


Pate Fermentee is actually a prefermented dough that has been a day old. No worries, it's pretty normal to use old dough and in fact, some of the sourdough bread were made with sourdough starters that are decades old! :)

The longer fermentation process helps to develop the flavour of the bread. Hence the boules were tastier and more aromatic than the other 3 breads.


Loading - the loader is very heavy and hence I was exempted from doing so. I unloaded the breads using a wood peel

Bread Making is really hard work and now, I'll appreciate every bite of my daily bread.

I love the crackling sound of the breads when they were hot and cooling down. The sparkling "sounds" excite me and though my breads were incomparable to the beautiful once my chef made, they were mine.


Beautiful, Rustic Baguettes made by Chef Aaron Brown - Master Baker

I wish I can write more but I need to rush off for the next class :)
I'm making enriched bread for Day 2!